INCREASED DUTY

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 57, 14 April 1914, Page 5

INCREASED DUTY

ON MOTOR-CAR BODIES. Press Association. AUCKLAND, April 13. The Convention of the New Zealand National Association of Carriage Builders and Wheelwrights this morning received a deputation whose members urged that steps should be taken to have the duty on motor-car bodies increased. Several communications laid before the convention indicated that there was a consensus of opinion among employees and employers in the coachworking industry that an increase in the duty on motor-car bodies (which can be made in the Dominion) was equitable and even essential if the trade of carriage building were,to continue to exist. A resolution was unanimously adopted setting forth the opinion that the time was now opportune that in the interests, of the carriage building trade tire Customs tariff should be revised.

Mr W. Atkin (Auckland), in pointing out the need for protection, said that water carriage was the cheapest means of conveyance; hence the Dominion's butter, cheese, and frozen meat could compete in the world's markets sixteen thousand miles away. This assisted New Zealand also in the matter of freights on raw materials, but, per contra, the freight on a buggy from New York was about the same as that by rail from Auckland to .Hamilton, 85 miles.